Alachua County Sheriff's Office responded to an unusual call from the public on Monday December 19, when a hawk and snake were caught in a life-and-death battle.
A video posted by the Sherrif's Office on Facebook showed how Deputy Aldous was sent to deal with the unruly animals on the intersection of NW 39th Avenue and NW 78th Terrace in the Gainesville area, Florida.
Public Information Officer, Art Forgey, told Newsweek: "Our communications center received a call from a citizen reporting an injured hawk on the sidewalk."
Despite the unusual nature of the call, Forgey said that deputies are relatively used to deal with animal-related callouts.
"Deputies are used to dealing with odd animal type calls—especially alligators. Many carry equipment with them to deal with such calls since much of the area we work is rural," he explained.
The deputy was advised that the snake in question was a North American racer snake, also known as a black racer.
Usually around 20-56 inches in length, the long and slender snakes have large prominent eyes and a black or blue-back with white markings around the chin and throat. Found throughout every county of Florida, they are non-venomous snakes that while not dangerous are known to readily bite to defend themselves.
But the hawk that had decided to snack on the black racer had a nasty surprise when its dinner started to bite back.
Thanks to the intervention of law enforcement, both the snake and hawk made it out of this encounter unscathed, but there are records of hawks meeting an untimely end when their snake prey turned the tables.
Captain Kaley Behl told Newsweek: "The snake and the hawk were separated safely and went on their merry way."
Hawks are typically known to hunt small mammals and birds, but there are documented instances of the birds of prey killing and eating snakes.
Perfectly capable of hunting and killing snakes, the birds don't typically hunt them down as prey, and research shows that most of the snakes that end up in hawk nests are small and young. Larger snakes are much more likely to avoid being eaten by hawks and are known to fight back—much like the one involved in this unusual roadside brawl.
"We receive our fair share of animal calls," said Forgey. "Many times deputies are able to work with rescue groups to rescue the animals."
"That is an unusual call," said Behl. "But you never know what you will find on any given day in patrol," he laughed.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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